CHARA. 315 



The fruits, cr sori, of Ferns afford a very beautiful 

 variety of objects for the microscopist, and they possess an 

 advantage in requiring little or no preparation nothing 

 more being necessary than that of taking a portion of a 

 frond, place it on a glass-slip under the microscope, and 

 throwing a condensed light upon it by the aid of the side 

 reflector. Even germination may be watched by simply 

 employing gentle heat and moisture. Take, as Hoff- 

 meister directs, a frond of a Fern whose fructification is 

 mature, lay it upon a piece of glass covered with fine 

 paper, and place the spore-bearing surface downwards 

 upon this ; in the course of a day or two this paper will 

 be found to be covered with a fine brownish dust, which 

 consists of the liberated spores. These must be carefully 

 collected, and spread out upon the surface of a smooth 

 fragment of porous sandstone, and then- placed in a saucer, 

 the bottom of which is before covered with water ; a glass 

 tumbler being inverted over it to ensure the requisite supply 

 of moisture, and prevent rapid evaporization. Some of the 

 prothallia soon germinate ; if the cup be kept only slightly 

 moist for some time, and then suddenly watered, a large 

 number of antheridia and archegonia quickly open, and in a 

 few hours the surface of the larger prothallia will be covered 

 with moving antherozoids. If sections of fhese be made, 

 that is, the canals laid open, with a power of 200 or 300 

 diameters we may occasionally see antherozoids in motion, 



CHARACE.E. Ghara vulgaris is the plant in which the 

 important fact of vegetable circulation was discovered ; 

 Fig. 170, No. 1, is a portion of the plant of the natural 

 size. Every knot or joint may produce roots ; but it is 

 somewhat remarkable, that they always proceed from the 

 upper surface of the knot, and then turn downwards ; so 

 that it is not peculiar that the first roots also should rise 

 upwards with- the plant, come out of the base of the 

 branch, and then turn downwards. 



Mr. Varley noticed : " The ripe globules spontaneously 

 open; the filaments expand and separate into clusters." 

 "These tube-like filaments are divided into numerous 

 compartments, in which are produced the most extra- 

 ordinary objects ever observed of vegetable origin, Fig. 

 170 A. At first they are seen agitating and moving- in their 



